Modified Maternalism: Nurses and Their Families Managing Work and Care in Australia

Abstract

Work life, family life and care are all being substantially re-shaped in Australia as in other post-industrial societies. Concern about work/life balance has increased as domestic gender relations slowly change, the breadwinner/homemaker model becomes less dominant and families undertake more demanding and flexible modes of employment and care. Using data from a qualitative study of nurses and their families this paper explores how families are managing the contemporary intersection of flexible family life and flexible labour. Family values emerged as an important mediating factor in the organisation of work and care. The couples valued parental care and time with children and used shift work to enable family life. We argue that just as the breadwinner model is being modified in Australia so too is the maternalist culture of care. In most of the families in the study the women are important but secondary breadwinners and the men are important but secondary carers.

Patterns of everyday activities across social contexts

“…It is often advantageous for the different members of a group to engage in different but complementary, or interlocking, activities (32). For example, in households where two parents are working, it is often easier to ensure that someone is with the children when those parents work different shifts (9,33). An implication is that some sets of individuals are likely to exhibit different sequences of everyday behavior-with some individuals engaged in one activity pattern and others engaged in another.…”

Women's Care/Career Changes as Connection and Resilience: Challenging Discourses of Breakdown and Conflict

“…There are evident and pressing care crises that sit alongside women's ever‐increasing involvement in the paid labour market (Hochschild, ) and small though observable changes to men's caring labour (Craig, ; Hook, ). Persisting gendered patterns of part‐time employment and maternal ideologies of care that may be intensifying rather than diminishing (Hays, ; Lindsay et al ., ) shape women's experiences and create expectations of maternal care and presence that are hard for women to reconcile with employment. Living with these stresses and expectations can have detrimental effects (Bianchi et al ., ).…”

“…As the shared interview context revealed in explicit discussions of the allocation of work and care time, ideas about mothers' and fathers' responsibilities were often contested between the partners. Overall, all these female nurses assumed greater responsibilities as mothers for the provision of care (Garey, 1995;Lindsay et al, 2009). This pattern changed somewhat as their children grew past the first decade of life and care became more fully shared with their partners.…”

Flexibility or Constraint? The Implications of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Nonstandard Schedules for Children’s Behavioral Outcomes

“…It is possible, however, that nonstandard schedules may benefit children from two-parent families if two-parent families are more able to utilize nonstandard schedules as opportunities for flexibility. Indeed, many dual-earner couples choose to off-set their work schedules in order to allow a parent to always be present for their children (Hattery, 2001; Lindsay, Maher, & Bardoel, 2009) and some parents attest that they prefer nonstandard schedules because they allow them to feel like stay-at-home mothers or fathers (Hattery, 2001; Lindsay et al, 2009). In some cases, nonstandard schedules may therefore enhance parental involvement.…”